The average person reaches peak respiratory function and lung capacity
in their mid 20's. Then they begin to loose respiratory capacity: between
10% and 27% for every decade of life! So, unless you are doing
something to maintain or improve your breathing capacity, it will decline,
and with it, your general health, your life expectancy, and for that
matter, your spirit.

Heart attacks, cancer, strokes, pneumonia, asthma, speech problems and
almost every disease known to mankind is worsened or improved by how well
you breathe; the quality of your respiration.

With certain limitations as to genetic abnormalities, time and age of
the individual,lung tissue
can be revitalized. We
focus somewhat on emphysema here to show others that even it can be
improved and to use it as a role model and source of inspiration even for
those without lung disease.

The faster progress you wish the
more of the below you need to utilize.Shortness of Breath Program including
the approaches in the BHLN are the most efficient and least expensive.

The
Center for Disease Control, National Center for Health Statistics, showed
that the fourth leading cause of death in this country in 1994 was
emphysema and bronchitis. Elsewhere reported, asthma has increased 66% in
the last ten years. When the oxygen supply lessens the heart must work
harder. Germs, viruses, and bacteria are anaerobic. They cannot survive in
high concentrations of oxygen.

"Curing
emphysema is possible. The lungs that medical science thought impossible
to reactivate can if fact be reactivated".
Robert Nims, MD. Pulmonary Specialist.

The main points to this page are that

1.Lung tissue, just like brain and heart tissue thought previously
lost to sickness or non use,can
be reactivated.

2.Your lungs become less active and actually shrink in size if you do
not use them properly or abuse them. If you want to live as long
and as healthy as possible you need to offset that
"shrinkage" with specific breathing exercises, lung expansion
and diaphragm enlarging techniques and proper natural hygiene.

3.A small number of people with emphysema are born without a
lung-protecting enzyme called alpha1-antitrypsin. This makes
them more likely to develop emphysema at an earlier age. This may make
raw
foods critical to optimal health but I am not sure which foods
contain the above mentioned enzyme.

4.Emphysema and chronic bronchitis are the primary COPD diseases.

"Dr. Robert Nims,
M.D., now retired chief of pulmonary medicine at West Haven Veterans
Hospital in Connecticut,

"The standard teaching was
that air trapped in the emphysematous lung was trapped and could not be
exhaled. For this reason the diaphragm was pushed down to a flat position
and the ribs were elevated. Now I told Carl in no uncertain words that he
was ‘mildly demented’ to say that he could effect a rise in the
diaphragm and a descent in the ribs, but we got rather spectacular results
showing that he did do this."

During the Stough
Institute Breathing Coordination study, every test known in the
field was administered to the several hundred patients involved,
documenting the success of Breathing Coordination. Every patient who
participated in these tests improved in direct relation to the development
of the diaphragm and its increased motion. Over the past 40 years,
hundreds of lives have been saved and thousands of lives improved."

The Framingham study proved
that smoking accelerates lung tissue damage by as much as 50%. It also
proved that when smoking ceases, the acceleration stops. But most often by
then the lungs have had severe loss of function.

Can this function be
returned? A great deal of it? Absolutely.

You need to tackle this holistically with
a complete program of nutrition, cleansing, Optimal Breathing®
Development
techniques plus general overall movement type exercises that activate
the breathing system in a non stressful way such as low impact standing
type aerobics, walking, dancing, butoh etc.

Even meditators sitting on zafus in what looks to be an erect posture can
restrict their breathing. Any repeated activity may in some way restrict
one’s breathing or assist it.

Dear
Michael,

Thank
you for sending the "Secrets of Optimal Natural Breathing" to me
so promptly. I did get it in plenty of time to take it to Cape Cod with
me. There I simply read it several times without trying to do any
exercises or assessments.

In
the past few days I have been trying to work with the exercises. I have
also worked with the tape once. I intend to continue all this because
already I have had some significant help.

I
do plan to come up for some individual work in the next few months. I am
quite taken back by your work. I recently finished a pulmonary rehab
program at Vanderbilt University; and this morning when I walked (hobbled
for a few blocks) I thought: "Well everything I did in that program
was a kind of forcing; and now for the first time, I am glimpsing what it
means to take a real breath."

When
I got home my oxygen saturation jumped up to 99% for the first time.

Thanks a lot. I have a long way to go. In addition to my COPD I am now
struggling to recover from a back injury. I will continue with your basic
exercises for awhile and let you know when I might make a trip.

Thanks,
Phyllis P

"

Dear
Mike;

"I read all of your information and pretended I was on the beach
watching the ocean just like you said. When I received your study I
tried each exercise. I visualized my lungs as hard and crusty and the
only way to improve was breaths from my knees to the top of my head with
long exhales and letting the in breath come in by itself.

With a little improvement each day I am attempting to stomach breathe
while walking. The more I convince myself that the cause of my improvement
is deep breathing -----the more I extend the time I deep breathe each day.
I am walking up to one mile daily now. Many thanks Mike."

"Breathing
is the FIRST place not the LAST place one should
investigate when any disordered energy presents itself."

Sheldon Saul Hendler, MD Ph.D., The Oxygen Breakthrough

"He who breathes most
air lives most life."

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

"Mike's Optimal Breathing teachings should be incorporated into
the physical exam taught in medical schools as well as other allied physical and mental health programs, particularly
education, and speech, physical, and respiratory therapy."

Several Marathons has
inspired quite a few runners to use our breathing kit,
looking to increase their breathing strength &
endurance. This is on top of their fitness training
programs. Having a major tune-up to re-establish
energy-efficient breathing patterns has been of enormous
benefit to both elite and recreational runners - young
middle and old.

The breathing improvement
techniques, practices and products outlined in this publication are extremely
gentle, and should, if carried out as described, be beneficial
to your overall physical and psychological health. If you have any serious medical or
psychological problem, however, such as heart disease,
high blood pressure,
cancer, mental illness, or recent abdominal or chest surgery, you should consult your
health professional before undertaking these practices.